Eyes & Ears ~ November

I’m always at peak inspired late autumn - I fire on all cylinders, furiously scribble down ideas, tap out emails with ideas, shoot projects and cram in exercise classes. November is definitely my month for getting shit done. But it does mean with so many thoughts rattling around my head I spend a lot of time journalling rather than listening - no complaint but not the most conducive to writing a post about podcasts and such.

That said, Bedtime is always key time for me to switch off and it comes in the form of reading so a lot of this months Eyes & Ears is on books. Also, I listen to a lot of bleeps and beats this time of year.

Just this morning I’ve had a few solid podcast recommendations so might have some new ones for you next month. As always, I would love your recommendations too.

Podcasts and audiobooks

It’s an obvious one this but the Women’s Hour podcast is a fave, especially for a Sunday morning. I recently treated myself to an Alexa Dot (I KNOW, I KNOW) and love listening to this podcast in the kitchen while cooking.

The TED Interview is an insightful and interesting podcast - not every episode is for me but the joy of podcasts is there’s no need to listen to every one of a series, unless it’s a… er.. series.

Books

Sing, Unburied, Sing was a book I read for my book club, we formed a few months ago and the first two books we’d read weren’t the best so we were hoping third time lucky. There were mixed thoughts about some elements of the book when we met to discuss it but the overall verdict was a good read. Personally, I really loved this book - it had an interesting plot that enabled it to visit historic events while keeping in with the characters of the present day. It was super well written, descriptive without losing you when you just wanted to get on with the storyline. It kept me turning the pages which was good being as I had left myself a few days to read this before meeting with my book club buddies - there was some serious bedtime hunkering down to get it read!

Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere is a book I’m still reading but I’m definitely into it. I’m really looking forward to bedtime each evening so I can check in with this storyline, which is good being as I seem to have developed a penchant for 6am spin classes.. In this post I talked about how reading can make us more empathetic and this rings very true with this book - there is a lot of putting yourselves in other shoes.

Things to watch

I’ve been mainly focusing on a few shows this month - a little bit of good escapism never does any busy person any harm. After everyone was raving about it I popped Killing Eve on one Saturday morning. I then spent the rest of the weekend binging on it - but my body was super grateful for the stillness after a frantic week of shooting.

I am a big Gimlet Media fan and when I heard one of their podcasts was being made into a series with Julia Roberts I wasn't sure what to expect. It premiered on Amazon Originals on 2nd November and it was a great watch - unnerving, twitchy and beautifully shot. Given my job, I found it incredibly aesthetically pleasing. Find Homecoming on Amazon Prime - see the trailer here.

Louis Theroux is back with another series of #awkward documentaries. The Altered States series focuses on modern America and birth, love and death. Well worth a watch, very insightful.

Music

The solo album from the Daughter singer Elena Tonra is a beaut. It’s definitely a winter win for me - I love this toasty, wallowing music this time of year, loving the minimal drums on some of the tracks. Find Ex:Re - Ex:Re here.

Good old 6Music - you are always sure to find a great new album if you check in on them. This album from Pip Hall was a real find, I cannot stop listening to it, particularly the foot tapping joy that is The Perfect Life. Here the whole album here.

I’m very much enjoying GoGo Penguin at the moment, especially their latest album on headphones on an evening walking through the streets of Brighton. Clash Magazine says “There’s a richly atmospheric sense of ambition running through the record, continually side-stepping expectations on the band’s continually inventive strand of jazz-but-not-jazz.” and I couldn't put it better than that so let’s just go with that.